New Products: Heard Any Good Books Lately?

Students hopelessly behind in required
reading for their classes have long relied on Cliffs Notes, synopses of
great books ranging from Homer to Hemingway. In 80 to 100 pages, the
notes neatly summarize dramatic highlights and offer concise literary
analysis geared to the questions that might appear on exams.

Now Cliffs is marketing the ultimate shortcut for harried students:
45-min. audio cassettes billed as "companions" to twelve such standard
assignments as Wuthering Heights and the Odyssey. The tapes incorporate
dramatizations of key scenes and brief lectures on their meaning.

Introduced in August, 200,000 copies have been sold in 2,000 bookstores
for...